#Meow: Meow Meow on a leash

I have never walked a dog in my life, but I have seen them do it in the movies and those dogs seemed professional – so much so that I thought cats can do it as well. Reality however is that this is going to take some work. Meow Meow is a different kind of animal, his spirit animal is probably a lion or some sort of wild beast of magnitude.

First let me just apologize for not having any pictures of this first time walking adventure, but trust me I would not have been able to take pictures anyway since this required quite a bit of concentration to pull off, so you will have to be happy with some generic looking cat pictures that I will sprinkle all over the place.

Carly and I went to the mall to buy a wok since I got a lot of quality meat from Asian Asia (we did a bulk buy together and I wanted to make some good beef fried rice that Saturday night) anyhow, so exploring the mall we popped into VETZCARE to look for the usual… you know food prices, cool toys, the latest in poop scoop technology et caetera. During this adventure in a Pet Store Carly spotted a leash with a harness all for R159.60! We immediately knew it was a sign and we bought it as we actually spoke about it at home before we went to the mall, unfortunately they only had one in stock so on we went strolling through the mall overly excited yet a little broken inside, because we only had one and we really wanted to walk with both at once for the first time. As we walk through the mall on our way to Game Carly decided for what it’s worth let’s just go to Absolute Pets and see what they have and lo and behold the exact same leash and harness and it was only R179.80! So needless to say we did not even think twice. Now armed with two purple leashes and harnesses we finished our shopping and headed home with excitement that could kill.

Carly wanted to take Bubbles and I obviously then took Meow Meow. Well let me just pause here for a second and say that this post is about to get long, I hope you have a coffee or some sort of time distraction in your hand because Cats are most definitely not dogs!

This was Bubbles!

Most cats don’t really want adventure and the thrill of discovering new places. Oh no no what they do want is to protect the territory that is already theirs. For the ones that are willing to go outside or go on walks (Bubbles), they view it as expanding their territory or patrolling a bigger territory that is already theirs in their mind. So as you can imagine this was not going to be your normal walk down sunset strip no no no this was survival!

When we opened that door one thing was very clear the only interactions with the outdoors has been through the window so both of them was on high alert when we took them outside. They were bombarded with foreign smells and scents and that kicked them into Alpha male mode so we could not walk them together at all!

Look I raised these little love balls since they were smaller than my hand and I know them inside out and never in my life have I ever felt threatened by these little bundles of love, but what I witnessed that Saturday reminded me that cats are not little play toys cats are vicious carnivores who will eat a Rottweiler’s face without hesitation and kill your first born child all while laughing as it feasts on Satan’s heart.

So frightened out of my soul we managed to separate them with Carly walking with Bubbles on the one side of the parking area and Meow Meow and I on the apposite side and that is when the little personalities game out since there was no immediate territorial threat anymore Meow Meow could go back to being himself, the little ball of love that he is.

This was Meow Meow

To be honest I was hoping for it to be a case of putting on the harness and then walking all over Tyger Waterfront I wanted to enter the restaurants I wanted to walk by The Cliffs I wanted to take them duck hunting I wanted to be all over the show since walking a cat sounded so damn cool in my mind! Reality however played out quite differently I was a case of Meow Meow deciding screw this I want to sleep right here on this warm brick the human can wait. So I waited, a hour passed by well I think it was an hour, it felt like 2 hours of just sitting trying to get Meow Meow to move but he was steadfast to lay on the bricks granted I laid next to him and I must admit that cat knows what comfort is, the bricks were the the perfect temperature and the sun was baking at all the right temperatures.

Carly decided to take Bubbles downstairs to the pathway that leads to WillowBridge it’s beautiful and filled with green and little duckies and birds and trees and stuff so after Carly and Bubbles went down me and Meow Meow followed suit and went down as well. That was no easy task, but once down it seemed they enjoyed it at least Bubbles did he is a majestic cat of exploration, Meow Meow on the other hand was a bit overwhelmed I could see it hindsight being 20/20 vision I must say I am planning on writing a follow up post about how to do this probably since I have learned quite a bit and there is some things I would like to do differently next time.

A little piece of advise I can give is to think twice, walking your cat outside on a leash may seem like the best of both worlds but keep in mind your cat may decide she/he should be in charge of the walking schedule. This means she/he could begin a behavior of meowing at the door. She/He could also become a door darter when the door is opened if she feels you aren’t taking her outside often enough.